January 02, 2009

The Haunted Mansion

When a Disney ride becomes a movie, there’s not much hope that things will turn out as well as they do in this tame horror comedy aimed at the preteen set. Eddie Murphy is an ambitious and cheesy realtor who sidetracks his family’s vacation to make a deal on an old mansion overlooking a cemetery. Terence Stamp is effectively drool as the mansion’s evil butler intent on forcing Murphy’s beautiful wife Marsha Thomason into marrying Nathaniel Parker, the lord of the mansion. Filled with vaporizing ghosts, secret passages and zombies Based on its intentions as an entertaining movie for kids, “The Haunted Mansion” is an effortless joyride.Rated PG. 98 mins. (C) (Two Stars)

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